Contemporary Adaptations of Ancient Greek Myths and Tragedies
 - Round table discussion

“Has the ancient god of theatre finally returned to his ancestral sphere, the theatre, and at the same time entered our hyper-modern, super-digitalised world? Does this return aim for the restoration of an earlier state or a radical renewal?” asks Erika Fischer-Lichte, a renowned scholar researching contemporary theatre.

These questions will be explored during the discussion Contemporary Adaptations of Ancient Greek Myths and Tragedies in the context of the growing number of contemporary adaptations of ancient myths and tragedies worldwide, as was evident in previous MITEM programmes (see, among others, the highly successful productions of Robert Wilson, Theodoros Terzopoulos, Suzuki Tadashi, Rimas Tuminas, Vito Taufer, Jan Klata).

This year’s 11th MITEM includes five productions presenting this theme: Odysseus (directed by Diana Dobreva), Bacchae (directed by Theodoros Terzopoulos), AIA - based on the myth of the Golden Fleece (directed by Tata Tagdishvili and Tato Geliashvili), Peak Mytikas - on the top of Mount Olympus (directed by Jan Fabre) and Tragùdia – the song of Oedipus (directed by Alessandro Serra).

Round table participants:

•  Savvas Stroumpos, Greek director and collaborator of Theodoros Terzopoulos. In the summer of 2023, he held a course for students in Kaposvár, where they prepared an exam performance of Aeschylus’ drama The Persians.

• Attila Végh, Attila József Prize-winning poet and philosopher, whose seminal essays on Terzopoulos’ Bacchae were published in English and Hungarian in Szcenárium and Magyar Művészet in 2023. Since 2013, he has published regularly on ancient Greek culture in the trade journal of the National Theatre, and his writings have also been published in book form.

• Attila Simon, professor at the Institute of Hungarian Literature and Cultural Studies, ELTE, Faculty of Humanities. His current research fields include bio-political themes in ancient Greek drama, and the various functions of rhetoric in political discourse and artistic language. 

• Zsolt Szász, dramaturge of the National Theatre, editor-in-charge of the journal Szcenárium, moderator of the round table

(31 March 2024)